Joe O'Reilly

Joe O'Reilly was a Sinn Fein TD and one of Michael Collins' staff members and close friends.

Biography
Joe O'Reilly was friends with Michael Collins since the Irish War of Independence, serving in his IRA hit squad in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland. O'Reilly assisted him with planning out the murders of several British informants and agents in Dublin in 1920. In 1921, he sat in the Dail Eireann next to Collins and Liam Tobin, and he supported the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December. During the Irish Civil War, O'Reilly served on Collins' staff, and he was by his side during the shelling of the Four Courts during the Battle of Dublin and when the IRA ambushed him on a country road in County Cork. O'Reilly took over the machine gun in Collins' car and attempted to gun down Donagh O'Casey and the other IRA members, but Collins was shot in the head and killed. O'Reilly was the man sent to inform his fiancee Kitty Kiernan about his death, and he comforted her after breaking the news.